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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



J. KEARNY RODGERS, M.D., 



FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

' THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND ONE OF ITS TRUSTEES ; SURGEON TO THE NEW 

YORK HOSPITAL AND NEW YORK EYE INFIRMARY ; CONSULTING SURGEON OF 

THE NEW YORK LYING-IN ASYLUM, OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE 

BLIND, AND OF THE EMIGRANTS' HOSPITAL; FORMERLY PRESIDENT 

OF THE N. Y. COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

OF THE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE ; AND HONORARY MEMBER 

OF THE NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



BY 

EDWARD DELAFIELD, M.D. 

Read before the New York Academy of Medicine on Wednesday, October 6th, 1852, 
and Published under its Authority. 




NEW YORK: 

G. A. C. VAN BEUREN, PRINTER, 223 BLEECKER STREET. 

1852. 



"ftl) 




ftl* 






BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



J KEARNY RODGERS, M.D. 



The life of a good physician does not always furnish 
materials most available to the biographer. He may 
have practised long and successfully ; may have formed 
a large circle of deeply attached friends and patients ; 
may have been beloved and honored by the poor ; have 
gained the respect and esteem of every member of his 
own profession ; have added his fair proportion to the 
improvements of the day, in his science and his art ; 
and, in dying, left a whole community to deplore his loss,^ 
and feel, for the time, that his place could not be 
supplied; — and yet leave behind him no materials from 
which a biography could be drawn up of deep interest 
beyond his own profession and the circle of patients 
among whom he moved. And such was John Kearny 
Rodgers. For thirty-five years was he known in the 
city of New York as the good physician ; every year 
gaining reputation as a practitioner, and esteem and 
affection with those among whom he practised ; gradually 
but surely building up a fame as a surgeon second to 
none in our country, and acquiring a position depending 
on his qualities as a man of sterling integrity and high 
honor, equalled by few and enviable by all. 

It is men of this stamp who leave behind them the 



regret that they have left no written memorial of what 
they have learned and what they have accomplished. 
And it always must be so. The practising physician 
who moves most among the sick, and is most esteemed 
during his lifetime, has little leisure to write. The 
labors of a long day in a large city, with the cares 
and anxieties caused by attendance upon numerous 
cases involving danger and often death, are no good 
preparation for the use of the pen at night. And every 
day do such men see and learn many things they would 
be glad to contribute to the common stock of their 
profession's knowledge ; but it cannot be. They go on, 
day after day, and year after year, learning more and 
knowing more ; until when they begin to feel that they 
have now somewhat mastered the difficulties of their 
science ; have somewhat learned what to discard among 
rules of art handed down from ages, and what to retain ; 
have even felt that they themselves have added some- 
thing to the great professional treasury ; they drop into 
the grave and carry all with them. 

But I should not say all. Such men as Dr. Rodgers 
do leave behind them, although not in print, much to 
improve their profession. They have had many young 
men under their instruction who have drawn in, through 
daily intercourse, whatever was new or original in the 
mind of their preceptor. And in the constant intercom- 
munion going on between a physician of high reputation 
and his co-laborers of the day, he is incessantly diffusing 
the light he himself has created. His ideas too, are 
taken up by men of more leisure than himself and 
incorporated into the medical literature of the day, 
and he as well as the author, is thus adding to the mass 
of knowledge which, year by year, is accumulated by 
our profession. 

There were two such men, whom this train of thought 



brings forcibly to recollection, who were at the zenith 
of their reputation when Dr. Rodgers was as yet but a 
student of medicine. They were the late Drs. Wright 
Post, and Samuel Borrowe. He was highly esteemed 
by them both, and from both derived much of the 
knowledge he afterwards made so available. They 
both were admirable physicians, and enjoying the 
highest confidence of a large circle of patients. They 
both were remarkable for medical sagacity ; the prompt- 
ness and clearness with which they seized upon the 
features of a case, which shewed its character ; and the 
judgment with which they selected the appropriate treat- 
ment ; — and yet neither of them left any written work 
to perpetuate their names. It is a melancholy pleasure 
to the writer, at this late day, to bear his testimony 
to the worth and excellence of these men of former 
days ; for he, as well as Dr. Rodgers, looked up to them 
both with affection and reverence, and feels that he 
owes them a debt not to be repaid. 

John Kearny Rodgers was born in the city of New 
York, October 18th, 1793. He was the eldest son of 
Dr. John R. B. Rodgers, and grandson of the Rev. John 
Rodgers, D.D., many years Pastor of the Wall street 
Presbyterian Church. 

It is pleasing to look back to the progenitors of so 
excellent a man, when we can find that by inheritance 
even, he was entitled to the excellent disposition and 
great moral worth which were his characteristics. 

"The family was of Scottish origin. They were among 
the colonists from Scotland who were induced by the 
English government to take up lands in Ulster, in the 
north of Ireland, and to assist in extirpating the ' wilde 
Irish,' at the time the city of London received from 
James I. the charter of Londonderry. The great- 
grandmother of Dr. J. K. Rodgers was quite a child in 



after times when Londonderry was defended by Walker, 
in 1690 ? and retained through life a vivid recollection of 
the privations and horrors of that siege. Some time 
after that event, a large body of Presbyterians came to 
this country under the conduct of their Ministers, and 
settled Londonderry in New Hampshire; and in con- 
nection with that immigration, but at a later period, the 
father of John Rodgers, D.D., came out to this country. 
This last was born at Boston, August 5th, 1727. He 
was educated for the ministry and settled at St. George's, 
in Delaware, and married Elizabeth Bayard, the 
daughter of Col. Peter Bayard* of Cecil county, Mary- 
land, September 19th, 1752. His memoir, written by 
his friend and colleague, Dr. Samuel Miller, gives the 
principal events of a life passed in quiet usefulness, 
chequered only by the vicissitudes of the Revolutionary 
war ; and the volume owes most of its bulk and much of 
its interest (to Presbyterians, at least,) to the fact that 
he was a prominent clergyman of that church in this 
country ; and that the early history of that church was 
very much identified with his labours. 

" John R. B. Rodgers, the father of Dr. J. K. Rodgers, 
was born at St. George's in Delaware, December 28th, 
1757. He went to school at Elizabethtown, New 
Jersey, and was a class-mate with Aaron Burr at 
school, and afterwards at College at Princeton, New 
Jersey, where he graduated in 1775. He was a pupil 
of Dr. Rush, and was employed by him during the 
commencement of his medical course, as an assistant in 
the organization of military hospitals, and in other 
services connected with the plans of Dr. Shippen and 
Dr. Rush. He afterwards became Surgeon of the 1st 
Pennsylvania regiment, and continued in the service to 
the close of the war. At the peace, he went to Europe, 
and after taking his medical degree at the University of 



Edinburgh, he visited France, and returning, settled 
in New York. On the 5th July, 1790, he married 
Susannah R. Kearny, daughter of Ravaud Kearny, of 
Am boy, in New Jersey, of which union John Kearny 
Rodgers was the second child. 

" The late Dr. Rodgers went to school in New York to 
Dr. Barry, lately deceased. He then went to Baskin- 
ridge in New Jersey, where the Rev. Robert Finley had 
established a classical academy of some reputation. At 
'this place he was prepared for college, and entered 
Sophomore at Nassau Hall, Princeton, in the autumn of 
1808. For some reason he was not a favourite of the 
President, Dr. Samuel Stanhope Smith, who, on one 
occasion, remarked to him, that he would never 
distinguish himself. To which he replied, smarting 
under the taunt, ' The world shall see, Sir.' In after 
life he often alluded to this incident as being the first 
stimulus his ambition ever received. His feeling of 
unmerited rebuke aroused his pride and furnished him 
with an incentive to industry, which, confirmed by habit 
and guided by good principles, never ceased to act 
during his whole life. He took his first degree at 
Princeton, in October 1811, and having chosen medicine 
as his profession, he became a pupil of the late Dr. 
Wright Post the following winter. He received his 
license to practise physic from the medical society of 
this city, in January 1816, and in the month of March 
following, graduated in medicine at the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the 
State."* 

Dr. Post, at that time and until his death, was the 
acknowledged head of his profession, the worthy pre- 
ceptor of the worthy pupil. With Dr. Post our young 

* This history of the family was obtained from one of its members, and is given 
in his own words. 



8 

student soon gained the highest confidence, and by his 
assiduity and diligence became the favourite pupil. 
Following the example of so distinguished a master, he 
attached himself to Anatomy and Surgery as his special 
pursuits ; and with such energy and success did he 
devote himself to these subjects, that, even before he 
graduated in medicine, he acted as Demonstrator of 
Anatomy to Dr. Post. He was looked up to by his 
fellow-students as far excelling all of them in the 
knowledge of Anatomy and skill in dissecting. To the 
Anatomical Theatre he devoted himself with untiring 
zeal and ability, making himself by constant experience 
familiar with all the manipulations required in preparing 
and dissecting subjects, as well as the preparation of 
either healthy or morbid specimens for preservation. 
Very early he began to collect a museum of Anatomy 
and Pathology, and in conjunction with Dr. Wagner and 
the writer of these lines, while still pupils, formed the 
nucleus of two collections. One of these, after it had 
become large and valuable, he presented during his life- 
time to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of this 
city; and the other is deposited in the Obstetric 
collection of the same institution. 

In 1815 he was appointed assistant house-surgeon to 
the New York Hospital, and six months afterwards the 
writer became an occupant of the same apartments in 
that establishment, as assistant house-physician. It was 
here that, living together and labouring together in a 
common cause, a friendship begun as students under the 
same master, was cemented by a bond which death 
alone dissolved. 

As house-surgeon in the Hospital, an office which 
he filled in the following year, Dr. Rodgers first shewed 
the dawnings of that skill as a surgeon which eventually 
placed him among the very first of whom our country 



can boast ; and it was here too, that in his attendance 
upon the poor inmates of a public hospital, first appeared 
that kind and considerate manner, that gentle but 
cheerful address, that so evident heartfelt interest in the 
well-doing of his patients which, in after life, made him 
so universally beloved by all who fell under his pro- 
fessional care. From the Governors and Superintend- 
ent down to the humblest official about the hospital, he 
was by all respected and beloved ; and no medical 
officer ever left the institution who had better done his 
duty there, or with more entire satisfaction to all the 
inmates. 

In February, 1816, after thus honorably closing his 
duties as house-surgeon of the New York Hospital, he 
sailed for England ; and once more as a student in a new 
school and among new associates, drank deep at the 
fountains of knowledge now opened to him by such men 
as Haighton, Cline, Astley Cooper, Abernethy, Law- 
rencg and Travers. In six months the writer followed 
him and again laboured with him in the same Hospitals, 
the same schools, and even the same apartments. 

Here once more the devoted zeal of Dr. Rodgers soon 
attracted the attention of his teachers, and especially of 
Sir Astley Cooper ; and among the 400 pupils attending 
that great man's lectures in Guy's and St. Thomas' 
Hospitals, he soon became one of the most distinguished, 
and received constantly marks of attention of the most 
gratifying character. This eminent surgeon was at that 
time at the very zenith of his reputation, and was 
constantly performing at Guy's Hospital the most 
important and difficult operations, which were regularly 
witnessed by Dr. Rodgers ; and, among the rest, he saw 
him perform the wonderful operation of tying the Aorta. 

Here he had constant access to the valuable museum 
of Anatomy of St.Thomas' Hospital, and from this source 



10 

as well as in the Dissecting-rooms of the same Hospital, 
where Mr. Green was the Demonstrator, he drew large 
stores of useful knowledge from the comparison of 
healthy and diseased organization. " There were 
giants in those days," and London then boasted of a 
constellation of medical men, both physicians and 
surgeons, teaching in the great schools of that metropo- 
lis, who have never been excelled, and hardly equalled 
since. And it was by following the teachings of these 
men that Dr. Rodgers laid the foundation of professional 
knowledge, upon which, he afterwards built so well by 
his own observation in the extensive practice he 
eventually enjoyed. 

It was at this period also, that his attention was first 
attracted to diseases of the eye as a favourite subject of 
study. When he left his own country to pursue 
medical study abroad, this class of diseases was very 
imperfectly, it may almost be said, not at all understood 
by American surgeons. The London Eye Infir/nary 
had been founded by John Cunningham Saunders not 
many years before, and had then become firmly 
established, and had under its charge a very large 
number of patients. It was here that Dr. Rodgers, Dr. 
Edward Reynolds, of Boston, and the writer of these 
pages, first learned their own ignorance of these diseases, 
and seized the opportunity of studying a subject which 
opened to them so wide a field of usefulness. Mr. 
Saunders had died, but Mr. Travers, Sir William 
Lawrence, Dr. Farre and Mr. Tyrrell, were then the 
medical officers of the institution; with all of whom Dr. 
Rodgers became intimately acquainted, and from whom 
he constantly received the most flattering attentions. 

" He had little inclination for and little time to devote 
to reading, while in London. He took copious notes of 
lectures and interesting cases, which, at night he 



11 

occupied himself with filling up. His grand aim, how- 
ever, was to acquire experimentally, useful practical 
knowledge, for which purpose the senses of sight, 
hearing, and touch were brought into thorough and 
active operation."* Before leaving London he passed 
his examination and received the license of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, in the year 1818. 

After spending the spring and summer months in 
Paris, still devoting himself with untiring assiduity 
to professional study, he made a short tour on the 
continent in company with the^vriter, and in the month 
of October they both sailed for home. 

While in Erurope, he received from Dr. Post a 
proposal to become his Demonstrator of Anatomy, and 
immediately on his arrival, in the month of November, 
1818, he commenced the duties of that office in the 
course of lectures which had already begun. Previously 
to this period no such office had existed in the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, and it was established 
mainly for the purpose of securing for the College the 
valuable services of Dr. Rodgers, who, while a pupil, 
had shewn himself so admirable a working anatomist. 
This station he held a number of years and filled most 
acceptably both to Dr. Post and his classes, until his 
increasing practice and more attractive public duties 
obliged him to resign the office. 

In the year 1820, the New York Eye Infirmary was 
established, and to the zeal, assiduity and success with 
which Dr. Rodgers laboured as one of the founders of 
this institution, may be attributed much of the reputation 
which afterwards carried him on so successfully through 
life. The novelty of the undertaking induced the founders 
to begin it on their own private responsibility, trusting 
that after demonstrating its usefulness, it would be taken 

* Dr. Sterling. 



12 

up and established by the liberality of the public. Ac- 
cordingly, in the month of August, 1820, a small suite of 
apartments was taken, in Chatham street ; and it soon 
became known that at these apartments all poor persons 
applying, with diseases of the eye, would be treated 
gratuitously. In the meantime, Dr. Wright Post, and 
Dr. Samuel Borrowe, had allowed their names to be used 
as Consulting Surgeons, and were at once a guarantee 
to the public of the respectability of the institution, and 
to the profession, that it was conducted according to 
strict rules of medical propriety. The number of 
patients who flocked to it, far exceeded the expecta- 
tions of the founders ; and they soon found that they 
had in charge an institution altogether too considerable 
to be supported by two young men just commencing 
their professional career. Accordingly, in the month ot 
February, 1821, an appeal was made to the public 
in its behalf; liberal subscriptions were made, and a 
number of the most distinguished gentlemen of the city 
became Directors of the Infirmary, and its zealous 
supporters. 

In 1822, the Infirmary was incorporated by Act of 
Legislature, becoming thus one of the permanent public 
charities of the city, and second to none in the regular 
systematic efforts which it has ever since made in reliev- 
ing one class of the diseases suffered by the poor. It 
has, however, prospered more in the good it has been 
enabled to do, than in its financial condition. By prac- 
tising the strictest economy, it has avoided the common 
error of public charities, and has kept out of debt. It 
owns a moderate building, adequate to its present wants? 
and free from incumbrance ; but it has no fund for its 
support. It entirely depends upon an annual grant of 
$1000, made by the Legislature, liable at any moment 
to be withdrawn ; and upon this pittance it continues to 



13 

relieve the diseases of about 2000 patients, who apply 
every year.* 

In the year 1822, Dr. Rodgers was gratified in the first 
great object of his ambition, an appointment as one of 
the surgeons of the New York Hospital, and young as 
he was for so important a post, it gave general satis- 
faction to the profession. He now occupied a field 
where he constantly improved his knowledge and skill 
in his favourite pursuits, and it is believed that no 
other Surgeon of that Institution has more untiringly 
devoted himself to the care of the sick poor under his 
charge. As an operator, he soon attracted public atten- 
tion ; and his admirable knowledge of Anatomy did him 
good service in perfecting himself in this department of 

* The first officers and directors of the Institution, as named in the act of incor- 
poration, were — 

WILLIAM FEW, President. 

HENRY I. WYCKOFF, First Vice President. 

JOHN HONE, Second Vice President. 

JOHN DELAFIELD, Jr, Treasurer. 

JAMES I. JONES, Secretary. 

WRIGHT POST, M. D., ) n a 

SAMUEL BORROWE, M. D., f CoNSULTING Surgeons. 

EDWARD DELAFIELD, M. D., ) c 

T ttwadatv ™™-™a tut -iV ^Surgeons. 



J. KEARNY RODGERS, M. D. 






DIRECTORS. 

JAMES BOGGS, JEROMUS JOHNSON, 

NATHANIEL RICHARDS, ISAAC COLLINS, 

ISAAC PLERSON, CORNELIUS HEYER, 

WILLIAM HOWEL, HENRY RANKIN, 

BENJAMIN L. SWAN, SAMUEL TOOKER, 

WILLIAM HOWARD, EDWARD W. LAIGHT, 

HENRY BREVOORT, Jr., GIDEON LEE, 

SAMUEL F. LAMBERT, DAVID B. OGDEN. 
JONATHAN M. WAINWRIGHT, 

About three years after the establishment of the New York Eye Infirmary, and 
at the suggestion of its founders, a similar institution was commenced in Boston, 
by Dr. Edward Reynolds, and Dr. John Jeffries ; and a year or two afterwards, a 
third was founded in Philadelphia. They both have succeeded admirably, and 
have become valuable and stable institutions. 



14 

Surgery. No Surgeon of that Institution performed more 
operations within its walls, or with greater skill, during 
the long period of nearly thirty years that he belonged 
to it ; and a reputation as one of the first Surgeons in 
America was there established, which increased every 
day during his life. 

In the year 1823, the reputation he had already gained, 
caused him to be called to the Island of Curacoa, in 
the West Indies, to perform an important operation. 
He remained there several months, and performed du- 
ring that short period, many important and successful 
operations. " His career on the Island," says a friend, 
writing to me on this subject, " was successful to a most 
gratifying degree, not only with regard to the operation 
for which he was sent for, but also with other cases that 
there presented themselves. The novelty of a strange 
physician, and the prestige of his success in some severe 
operations, drew a crowd of poor persons, to whom he 
gave his services gratuitously. The Governor of the 
Island offered for that purpose some rooms in the Fort, 
and on his departure, issued a proclamation of thanks, 
which, in ^utch and English, was published in the 
Curacoa newspapers by order of the authorities." 

" Sir : — The humanity which, with so much readiness, you disinterestedly show- 
ed to a great number of poor indigent inhabitants of this Island, who for the pur- 
pose of obtaining their health, haye made use and availed themselves of the aid 
and assistance which you were pleased, from your own inclination, to offer them, 
exacts from me, the Chief of this Colony, the warmest acknowledgment of thanks ; 
even so your zeal and diligent abilities practised towards some most estimable and 
valuable inhabitants, and crowned with favourable success in such manner as to 
restore them to the circle of their useful occupations, for the good of themselves 
and the community at large, not less deserves my gratitude. 

" I therefore, dear sir, offer you herewith my acknowledgment of thanks, for the 
important services and assistance which, during your stay in this Island, you so 
laudably and generously have offered to so many of its inhabitants, and in which 
you have displayed so much talent and experience in your noble profession. 

" I embrace this opportunity to assure you of my high esteem, and have the honor 
to remain, 

" Cantelaar, 
" Rear Admiral, Governor of Curacoa and its dependencies. 
"May 23rd, 1823." 



15 

Dr. Rodgers returned in July of the same year, and on 
the 6th October following, married Mary Ridgely Nichol- 
son, a daughter of John R. Nicholson, of Baltimore, By 
this marriage he had six children, two sons and four 
daughters ; all of whom survive but one very lovely 
young creature, who died in January, 1844, in the 18th 
year of her age, of consumption, the disease which had 
previously carried off her mother. 

He was married a second time, in 1847, to Miss Emi- 
ly Hosack, daughter of the late Dr. Hosack, of this city, 
whose celebrity as a physician has not been exceeded by 
any other medical man in our country. Two more 
daughters were added to his family by this marriage, and 
he has left them behind at an age so young that they will 
never be conscious how excellent a father they have 
lost. 

But the history of his surgical life has more interest 
to the members of this Academy than his domestic rela- 
tions, and to this I return as a theme which well deserves 
to be dwelt upon. 

"It generally happens," says an author who wrote 
centuries ago, " that when men of small ambition are very 
early distinguished by the voice of fame, their thirst of 
honor is soon quenched and their desires satisfied ; where- 
as, deep and solid minds are improved and brightened 
by marks of distinction, which serve as a brisk gale, to 
drive them forward in the pursuit of glory. They do not 
so much think that they have received a reward, as that 
they have given a pledge, which would make them blush 
to fall short of the expectations of the public ; and 
therefore they endeavour, by their actions, to exceed 
them." 

And such was our friend. He was indeed early dis- 
tinguished, but " always endeavouring to excel himself, 
and meditating some exploit which might set him in a 



16 

new light, adding achievement to achievement," and never 
ceasing to improve. 

His ambition was to be, not merely one of the first, 
but the first surgeon of our country, and if he did not 
excel all others, who among us has excelled him ? That 
his surgical career was most brilliant none will deny; and 
he did at last arrive at one great object of every surgeon's 
ambition, the successful performance of a great and diffi- 
cult operation, which had been attempted before by the 
greatest masters of his art, but without success. And as 
this operation was the crowning act of his surgical life ; 
his last greatest effort of professional skill, I have thought 
it just here to introduce the case at large. 

" Michael Larman, a German, aet. 42, was admitted 
into the New York Hospital, Sept. 13th, 1845, with aneu- 
rism of the subclavian artery. He had suffered pain in the 
arm for several months, but about four weeks previously 
to admission, while carrying a heavy weight on his left 
shoulder, he was suddenly seized with severe pain in the 
shoulder and arm, and then for the first time, observed 
a swelling above the left clavicle, about the size of a 
pullet's egg. The tumour was found to pulsate strongly, 
and to rise about two inches above the bone. It ex- 
tended externally to the outer third of the clavicle, and 
internally was covered by the outer edge of the sterno- 
cleido-mastoid muscle. The patient complained of severe 
pain in the axilla, running down the arm. He could not 
sleep at night on account of the pain, and his general 
health had materially suffered. The arm and hand were 
much swollen. A. palliative treatment was adopted during 
about a month, in which time the tumor increased in size 
and passed more under the mastoid muscle. 

"The artery was tied on the 14th October, in the pre- 
sence of a very large assemblage of spectators. An in- 
cision was made, 3j inches in length, on the inner edge 



17 

of the sterno-mastoid, terminating at the sternum, and 
from this another was carried along the clavicle 2£ 
inches. The flap being raised, the dissection was care- 
fully carried down so as to expose the surface of the 
scalenus muscle half an inch above its insertion. Press- 
ing the soft parts inwards and working with the fingers 
and the handle of the knife with great care and gentle- 
ness, to avoid injuring the deep jugular vein and the 
thoracic duct, the artery was easily arrived at. Great 
care was now necessary to detach the artery and avoid 
danger to the pleura and thoracic duct. To pass the liga- 
ture, after an unsuccessful trial of Sir P. Crampton's nee- 
dle, the one invented by Drs. Parrish, Hewson, and Harts- 
horn, of Philadelphia, was finally employed. ' This part 
of the operation,' says Dr. Rodgers, ; it will be imagined, 
was not very readily accomplished. The great depth of 
the vessel (nearly the length of my forefinger), and nar- 
rowness of the wound, prevented a very easy manage- 
ment of instruments. The point was introduced un- 
der the artery and soon directed upward, so as to avoid 
injury to the pleura. The needle carrying the ligature, 
was now detached from the shaft of the instrument and 
drawn upward so as to include the artery. I readily tied 
the ligature and tightened it with the forefingers at the 
bottom of the wound. All pulsation ceased in the aneu- 
rism and the arteries of the extremity.' 

" The patient complained of no unusual feeling in the 
head after the application of the ligature, and indeed 
from that time, with the exception of a trifling erysipelas 
around the wound, no unusual or unfavourable symptom 
showed itself until the 13th day, when a free arterial 
hemorrhage occurred from the wound, which pressure 
controlled, after the loss of about 20 oz. of blood. 
Bleeding again occurred on the same day, when the pa- 
tient was raised up to drink. Pressure was made sys- 

2 



18 

tematically by sponges, compresses and bandaging, 
and no farther considerable external hemorrhage took 
place, though the blood was forcing its way into the 
tissues around the wound, giving rise to great swelling of 
the neck, and pressing on the oesophagus, interfered with 
the process of swallowing. The strength gradually gave 
way, and the patient died on the evening of the 15th day 
from the operation. 

" The P. M. examination showed the tissues of the neck 
around the wound very much infiltrated with blood. 
Through the pleura, which formed the bottom of the 
wound, the blood had forced its way by a recent rent, 
and the cavity of the left pleura contained an enormous 
coagulum, pressing upon and displacing downward the 
lung. The artery itself was found to have been tied about 
1| inches from the heart, and was completely divided by 
the ligature which was loose in the wound. The stump 
of the subclavian presented the appearance of a round, 
solid cord, impervious to liquids and air. On laying 
open the vessel longitudinally, a firm, fibrinous coagulum 
occupied its cavity, and was firmly adherent to its inner 
membrane for three quarters of an inch from the ligature. 
Beyond the ligature, nothing but a soft coagulum was found 
in the vessel. The vertebral was given off just at the point 
of ligature, and was open, containing a soft, recent coagu- 
lum. One-third of an inch from the vertebral, came off 
the thyroid axis, and nearly opposite the vertebral was 
the internal mammary. These vessels were all patulous. 
About half an inch from the thyroid axis commenced the 
aueurismal dilatation. The tumor was of the size of a 
small orange, and was completely blocked up with co- 
agula, and the axillary artery emerging from its distal 
side was obliterated for a considerable distance. The 
thoracic duct, which had been injected with wax from 
the abdomen, was uninjured. The heart was large. 



19 

Slight atheroma of the aorta. Other organs not exa- 
mined." 

This remarkable operation was justly considered as 
entitling Dr. Rodgers to the merit of having excelled all 
his competitors in this difficult branch of surgery, and 
those who witnessed it, well remember the intense in- 
terest excited by it in the whole profession of our city. 
The first operation in this country, on a large artery for 
aneurism, was performed in the New York Hospital by 
Dr. Post, on the carotid artery, while Dr. Rodgers was 
his pupil. That operation also was witnessed by the 
writer, and created as great a sensation then, nearly 
forty years ago, as did this now, after so many kindred 
ones had been performed throughout the world. The 
pupil finished what the master began, and nothing more 
is left for the surgeon to do in this branch of surgery 
which these two have not done before.* 

A striking feature in the professional character of Dr. 
Rodgers was strict integrity, in the fullest meaning of the 
word. His patients were always sure of obtaining his 
opinion of their cases with perfect frankness. He made 
no flattering promises in doubtful cases, and especially 

* Dr. Rodgers wrote so little for the journals, that it is not possible to collect 
any systematic account of the improvements he made or suggested in surgery. 
But since the reading of this memoir, I have found one published in a New York 
journal, of sufficient importance to be recorded. 

The want of success which had attended all the known methods of managing 
ununited fractures, has caused various operations to be devised for the cure of such 
cases. The following case, taken from the New York Medical and Physical Jour- 
nal, vol. 6th, page 52, describes a method of operating devised and first practised 
by Dr. Rodgers, and the most successful now in use. 

George Westerfield, aged 15 years, was admitted into the New York Hospital, 
July 25th, 1827, with an ununited fracture of the right os brachii, about two inches 
above the elbow joint. The accident occurred in June, 1824. In June, 1825, a 
seton was passed between the ends of the bones ; but no union followed. In June, 
1826, this operation was repeated, and the seton retained six months, but again 
without success. 

Mr. White's plan of sawing off the ends of the bone and reducing the injury to 
the state of a recent compound fracture, appearing to Dr. Rodgers the only method 
which then promised success, he performed the operation on the 31st of July, fol- 



20 

avoided surgical operations whose necessity and advan- 
tage were not fully apparent. He adopted literally and 
faithfully the maxim of his great master in surgery, Sir 
Astley Cooper, — " Never to perform an operation upon 
another which, under like circumstances, he would not 
have had performed upon himself." Nor did he, like too 
many others who rank high as surgical operators, ever 
operate upon a case which he considered not a proper 
subject for the knife, merely because the patient wished 
it. If there be a reprehensible practice among us, it is 
this ; and sad it is to hear men of undoubted skill and 
general fair fame, justifying themselves, when detailing 
operations in cases where no probability of success ex- 
isted, by this very plea. It certainly should be the sur- 
geon's own judgment which should decide such a case, 
not the patient's wishes ; for, much as a person may de- 
sire an operation, he trusts at last that the surgeon will 
not perform it if he do not have good hope thereby to 
save his patient's health or life. Dr. Rodgers was de- 
cided in his opinions and practice in this matter, and 
never yielded to the temptation his great operative skill 
put in his way of operating for his own sake, not his 
patient's. He thought with Hunter, that " when the sur- 

lowing. But after the operation was completed, it was found impossible to keep 
the ends of the bones in apposition ; they soon regaining their former bearings, 
an inch and a half asunder. 

" Apprehensive that I should be foiled," says Dr. R., " if the bones were thus 
far apart, I drilled a small hole through the shell of each end to the medullary 
cavity. Through these holes a wire was passed, and the ends of the bones retained 
in coaptation. The ends of the wire were drawn through a canula which remained 
in the wound. The wound was dressed with adhesive straps and covered with 
lint, and the arm placed on a right-angled splint, properly hollowed out." 

" Oct. 8th, sixty-nine days after the operation, I was gratified to find that the 
bone had united." 

Dec. 3rd. The patient was presented to the clinical class, with every motion 
of the arm perfectly regained." 

The operation has since been perfectly successful, as repeated by Dr. Mott and 
Dr. Cheesman, and in several other instances by Dr. Rodgers himself. It has 
now become one of the established resources of surgery. 



21 

geon takes up his knife he lays down his science," and 
left no appropriate surgical means untried before he 
resorted to operation. 

There was one disease especially in which he took 
strong ground in opposition to the every-day practice of 
surgeons, — Cancer of the female breast. We all know 
how rarely operation is successful in this disease. He 
early doubted of its propriety in any case, and one of 
the first subjects which deeply engaged his attention 
was the propriety of the operation in any case of this 
disease. He lost no opportunity of conversing with 
every surgeon he met with, on his experience in such 
cases, and corresponded with many of the first operators in 
Europe and our own country on the same subject. He very 
soon adopted the opinion firmly, that the operation, if 
performed at all, should be the exception, not the rule ; 
and almost reached the result at last, that it was never 
justifiable in true Scirrhus. Among those whom he ad- 
vised with on this subject, was Mr. Travers, whose letter, 
going deeply into this matter, as well as referring to the 
great operation on the subclavian artery, is here given. 
It was in answer to one from Dr. Rodgers, detailing that 
case, and making the enquiry whether, as some alleged, 
the operation had ever been performed previously by 
any other surgeon. Mr. Travers' letter is decisive on 
this point, and leaves Dr. Rodgers alone entitled to the 
reputation of having actually performed the operation, 
whatever others may have attempted. 

[Mr. Travers to Dr. Rodgers.] 

" My Dear Sir: — Indeed I recollect you with pride and pleasure, and have often 
and always rejoiced to hear of your high reputation and extensive usefulness, as 
creditable to my foresight, from the judgment I had formed of your character, if not 
in some small degree also to my instructions and example, as contributing to its 
formation and establishment. But I cannot indulge my self-love with the gratifi- 
cation of thinking that I am entitled to so large a share of your fame as your kind 
partiality would award me. 

I congratulate you on the accomplishment of the ligature of the subclavian, on 



22 

the inner side of the scalenus. I know of no other authenticated case. I was pre- 
sent at the operation of Sir A. Cooper, in 1809, and wrote the short and only notice 
of it in the ' Intelligence' of the 7th of Nov. of the ' London Medical Review,' 
of which I was surgical editor. At that time of day, the problem was to tie the 
artery at all ; certainly it would have been thought triumph sufficient to have 
secured it at the farthest point from the heart where it was accessible, and the 
steps described are, as you say, quite evidence to show that it was at the usual 
place, viz : after emerging from the scaleni, that the operator designed to pass his 
ligature. The paragraph above mentioned concluded with the statement that the 
artery had never been tied above the clavicle, i. e., the subclavian properly so 
called. At that period, I was conversant enough with surgical records to have 
been reputable authority, I suspect, on the points of history. The state of the 
vessel in your case, on the 15th day, is very important and interesting, to prove 
the capability of nature, as well as art's craft, to carry out the intention of the 
surgeon, i. e., to complete the obliteration of a primary trunk, so near the centre 
of the circulation. 

Referring to your second topic, I do not hesitate to state my acquiescence, and 
that of the most intelligent and experienced of any standing, in your views of the 
ineffieacy of the extirpation of genuine, well-marked cancerous tumors, and I 
believe I should be warranted in saying, that of twenty cases which would, 
twenty years ago, have been operated on by verdict of a consultation, not five, or 
not more, would now be subjected to it by the consent of the surgeons. But 
exceptions, seeming or real, occur, which, in very favourable circumstances, as 
time of life, and general health, with local advantages, as recent appearance, 
small bulk, perfect mobility, and freedom from all sign of contamination, cuta- 
neous or glandular, together with the patient's firmness of mind, and ready 
consent or even desire to take the chance of success rather than forfeit it, — still 
lead the best-informed to recommend rather than dissuade, though never to urge 
it, unqualifiedly or sanguinely, as in former times. I think this is the present 
state of the professional mind on the subject, and that it is due to the fact, that 
every man, taxing his experience, can call to mind some few instances in which 
the patient has survived the operation for some years, without a re-appearance 
of external disease. I have said ' seeming or real,' because these few favoured 
cases may possibly (or rather probably) have belonged to the former class, and 
thus the fallibility of the surgeon's diagnosis may explain the favourable results 
without admitting any real exceptions in contradiction to what the preponderance 
of unf ivourable results, and all that we see and know of the pathology of morbid 
poisous and their phenomena would lead us to expect. I believe that the 
patients whose lives are prolonged, will be found, on post mortem inspection, to 
be the subjects, if not the victims, of the chronic disease in other, viz. visceral 
textures of the body, provided that the case was a real one. Farther; that cases 
of unabsorbable tumors of a strumous character, such as more frequently affect 
the deep-seated, conglobate glands of the neck, have been reported and removed 
as scirrhous cancer, many, many times, and that when doubts have existed in the 
surgeon's mind, as to their real nature, the operation has been done advisedly 
and wisely, under the belief that, as life advanced, the cancerous virus would be 
secreted in these permanent, semi-organized deposits. But with this allowance 
for the exceptions, the admission that some (and one is as good as ten for the 
argument) have not re-appeared during a survival of ten, fifteen or twenty years, 
when no doubt of the character of the tumor had existed in the minds of eminent 



23 

pathologists, and the patient has been carried oft by some casual malady, must be 
granted. I have seen such. The great question comes to be considered, — Is the 
scirrhous cancer always preceded by a morbid change in the circulating blood, and 
of the nature of a deposit in the pecular localities which it affects ; or is it a local 
change in the nutrient or conservative circulation, incidental to time of life, to 
texture or function of the organ affected, or to injury ; the part itself generating 
or being the exclusive laboratory of the poison, which is, in process of time, 
absorbed into the veins and impregnates the entire system ? On the answer to 
this question depends, as it seems to me, that of the propriety of the operation in 
any circumstances, even the least favourable, the assumption being granted that 
we are speaking of really malignant or scirrhous cancer. There are grounds for 
believing that in some cases the latter is the true theory, and that the poison is 
a production of the part. Perhaps the strongest is the origin from local irritation 
or violence done to it, a real, but a rare case ; its selection of particular textures 
is of less though some weight. 2nd. The perfect freedom from any perceptible 
derangement of previous, or even present health, in any function of the body. 
3rd. Its insulated character and remote position in its commencement, and the 
absence of any sign of lymphatic or nervous affection in its first stage, the hard- 
ness and sparing vascularity of the tubercle, its investment by a cyst from which 
it derives its small supply of vessels, its process of change, softening in the centre, 
and from that period and not before, the contamination of neighbouring textures 
and the change in the lymphatic vessels and glands, together with the addition of 
morbid sensation or pain, though occasional and transient only — then and after, 
sooner or later, the constitutional irritation denoting the imbibition and diffusion 
of the poison. How unlike is all this to the soft cancer, by which term I include 
all the varieties of the medullary species! But there are cases so analo- 
gous to this last, and seeming in character so to play upon its oonfines, 
that, on several occasions, I have seen operations on middle-aged and 
previously healthy women followed by complete and permanent recovery, to 
the astonishment of all who had seen them, and about which, therefore, it 
was impossible to form any other conclusion than that they were scrofulous, 
not cancerous growths or disorganizations. These were tumors of extraordinary 
magnitude, and of elastic, not stony firmness, presenting on section an uddery 
base, with cysts and deposits exhibiting the various stages of softening and sup- 
puration. Again, there is undoubtedly an innocent or hydatidal cyst, attaining 
great bulk and rotundity, marked by lightness disproportioned to its bulk, perfect 
mobility as if pendant from a stalk, without other inconvenience than from size — 
no glandular affections, often, indeed generally, much discoloration from turgid 
cutaneous veins, and dropping out en masse on a free section, — others malignant, 
in which the scirrhous hardness of the septa and mammary structure, resembling 
some forms of multilocular, ovarian cystic tumors ; the color and consistence of 
the fluid secretion of the cysts, but especially the berry-like and fimbriated pro- 
duction of their interior surfaces, their enormous excrescential growth, when 
wounded or opened by ulceration, cauliflower fungi overlapping the surrounding 
tegument and bleeding continually at dressing ; these are malignant and seem to 
be hybrid or a fusion of the varieties of the scirrhous and medullary cancer in the 
same morbid degeneration. 

To conclude, for I must have exhausted your patience, I should say that our 
diagnosis is not yet so assured and comprehensive as to pronounce in certain cases 
against operation, that these are not only varieties, but abnormal and rarely seen, 



24 

and that the age, constitution, health, and attending symptoms, will and ought to 
influence our decision most materially, either for or against the knife. 

But the common and well known case of ' cancer mammse' can never be pro- 
nounced curable by removal, and must be regarded as a transfer, not an extinc- 
tion of the morbid poison, or a temporary arrest of a local action by a change of 
surface or kind, at the risk of other disease sooner or later contingent and conse- 
quent upon it, as a pulmonary effusion, or a scirrhous tubercle of the liver ; and 
the cases therefore which are unambiguous in their character, and especially such 
as are advanced the length of glandular or cutaneous contamination, are not war- 
ranted subjects for operation. 

Adieu, my dear Sir. I very seldom touch now upon these subjects. Your let- 
ter has roused my interest afresh. You are welcome to any use you please of this 
yarn, for ' auld lang syneV sake. With every kind and good wish, I remain, 

Sincerely yours, 

B. TRAVERS." 

It is hardly necessary farther to illustrate the great 
professional skill of the subject of our memoir. He 
was so well known to every member of this Academy,— 
his operations, in public and in private, had been 
witnessed by so many, that his praise was in every 
mouth, and will be long remembered by all who hear 
me, without any written memorial. 

Nor was the excellence of his personal character less 
widely known and appreciated. No instance has ever 
occurred where a professional man has died in this city 
whose loss was more universally deplored. For days 
the press teemed with it, and not a single journal of any 
character failed to give its testimony of the high estima- 
tion in which he had been held. In the language of one 
of them, " Of sterling integrity, of a noble and generous 
mind, tender and sympathising, sincere and earnest, he 
won friends only to make them enduring." 

But, as said the preacher over his last mortal remains, 
" We have come hither to bury our dead." The 
Academy has called upon me to present this memorial 
of one who is no longer one of its members ; who was — 
and is not. In the prime of life ; at the very zenith of 
his fame ; at the very moment when he had reached a 



25 

degree of eminence which left him nothing higher to 
aspire to, he was cut off. 

He died on the 10th of November, 1851, of a very rare 
disease, Inflammation of the veins of the portal system. 

On the 10th of October, he first began slightly to 
complain of illness, although not sufficient to prevent 
his usual attention to professional business. In the 
evening, he sent for his friend and former pupil, Dr. 
Dubois. He found him complaining of a muddy feeling 
across the forehead, of nausea, with slight vomiting of 
bilious matter, and of slight colic-like pain in the 
abdomen. His skin was rather feverish and his pulse 
about 100 in the minute. The next day he continued 
somewhat feverish, complained of inward heat, which he 
referred to the epigastric region, and about this time 
began to experience slight chills. His skin soon became 
sallow, and, the color rapidly increasing, in a few days 
he w x as completely jaundiced. But the most urgent and 
marked symptom was the occurrence of chills, returning 
without regularity, sometimes three or four in a day ; 
followed by increased heat, which soon terminated in 
profuse perspiration.* These symptoms continued with 
varying intensity until the 6th of November ; — frequently 
recurring chills, which gradually became somewhat 
regularly periodical, followed by heat and perspiration, 
were his only symptoms. There was no complaint of 
pain, nor of tenderness on pressure any where, and, 
especially over the region of the liver, which was 
carefully examined. Every part of the abdomen was 
carefully explored, again and again, but no evidence of 
any local disease could be detected. 

* About a week after the first symptoms of illness the writer of this sketch was 
summoned to the case. In a few days the character of the disease was so threatening 
that its danger was communicated to the family, who requested Dr. Swett to be 
added to the consultation. The account of the case is an abstract of that 
published by Dr. Swett, in the Medical Times of January, 1852. 



26 

On the 6th November, the chills entirely ceased ; but 
in the evening he became much prostrated, — there was 
some vomiting ; the abdomen was becoming tympanitic, 
and he showed still increasing evidences of exhaustion. 
Still there was no abdominal pain nor tenderness. The 
tendency to sinking continued during the night, and on 
the morning of the 7th November he was decidedly 
worse. His pulse was feeble and irregular, his skin was 
inclined to be cold, his features were altered, and he 
vomited at times. Still his intellect was perfectly clear, 
his manner composed and tranquil, and he experienced 
no abdominal pain nor tenderness, although the tym- 
panites continued. 

The next day he rallied a little, and some little hope 
was again felt that he might recover. But now, for the 
first time, he complained of pain in the right side of the 
abdomen, which was relieved by pressure. He con- 
tinued, on the following day (the 9th November), 
gradually to become more feeble, but without any 
complaint. He gave his oft-repeated answer, " I am 
perfectly comfortable." But about the middle of the 
day the mind began to wander, and a tendency to 
restlessness came on, with hiccnp. A severe attack of 
abdominal pain ensued. The abdomen became more 
distended, and felt very hard on pressure, which, 
however, produced no decided pain. During the 
evening he gradually sank, and died in the night. 

" On post mortem examination, all the evidences of 
general peritonitis existed. Lymph and sero-purulent 
matter was effused in the peritoneal cavity. There was 
but little lymph effused on the surface of the liver or of 
the spleen, and none upon the surface of the stomach. 
The liver was not enlarged. It was of a dark and rather 
greenish hue, and somewhat flabby. The portal vein 
was hard and firm, and when examined was found filled 



27 

with lymph, partly firm, partly broken down into a 
grumous detritus. The branches of this vein, as they 
ramified through the liver, were filled with healthy pus. 
The hepatic veins were not affected. The substance of 
the liver was also quite healthy. The mesenteric vein, 
supplying the small intestines, was also filled with pus, 
and the mesentery itself was much thickened, and its 
cellular tissue contained numerous collections of pus. 
The other abdominal organs were healthy." 

Such was the insidious disease which removed from 
this world one of the brightest ornaments of our pro- 
fession. Now that he is gone, and with melancholy 
pleasure we have dwelt upon his excellencies and his 
professional eminence, a still more important question 
arises, both to us and to him. What was the character 
of his life and death in this world, as preparing him for 
another life in another and an eternal world. Let us 
answer in the words of another,* who had watched over 
the welfare of his soul, while we struggled to save the 
life of the body. 

" But above all, how stood the soul, the spiritual 
occupant of the tabernacle, as it witnessed the taking 
down of one part after another of the tent in which it 
dwelt ? How did it look forth for the last time from its 
windows, until they were darkened, upon the familiar 
objects which had ministered to its pleasures and 
occupied its thoughts and labors so many years ? 
How did it contemplate its critical change ? What did 
it think of its destination ? What solicitudes, what 
hopes and fears, what agitations did then disturb or 
soothe it ? 

" My friends, it becomes me to lift the curtain of his 
last hours, and to give you here a glimpse, at least, of that 
hidden life of the soul which revealed itself during his con- 

* The Rev. Dr. Potts. 



28 

test with disease. To others I leave the question of the 
nature and workings of the subtle miner, who, out of sight, 
carried his approaches up into the very citadel of the cor- 
poreal life. It is of the higher life I speak, when I say that 
its diseases were not mortal ; that we saw how rapidly it 
was undergoing the cure of the Great Physician, and 
how tokens of the approach of complete and indestruc- 
tible health increased steadily, until the sanctifying 
Spirit of God finished his work as the last blow was 
struck by the removal of a body which oppressed its 
functions. As the outward man perished, we saw the 
inward man renewed, day by day. From the first day 
when our friend and brother laid himself down upon the 
bed from which he was not destined to rise, and at a 
time when he had no idea his last attack had come, he 
expressed with directness and simplicity, his faith and 
hope, — and left us not in doubt that he had within him 
4 the peace of God which passeth understanding.' 

" Through his illness, and as the last of earth appeared 
to his eyes, — when he felt that the golden bowl was 
breaking, — here at the Cross, symbol at once of his 
sinfulness and his deliverance from sin, he laid his 
burden down, saying, 'I am happy,' 'I am at peace.' 
Having uttered these and similar assurances, he literally 
departed as one who falls asleep. 



m 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



J. KEARNY RODGERS, M.D., 



FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND ONE OF ITS TRUSTEES ; SURGEON TO THE NEW 

YORK HOSriTAL AND NEW YORK EYE INFIRMARY ; CONSULTING SURGEON OF 

THE NEW YORK LYING-IN ASYLUM, OF THE INSTITUTION FOR THE 

BLIND, AND OF THE EMIGRANTS' HOSriTAL ; FORMERLY PRESIDENT 

OF THE N. Y. COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, AND VICE-PRESIDENT 

OF THE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE ; AND HONORARY MEMBER 

OF THE NEW YORK PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



BY 



EDWARD DELAFIELD, M.l) 



Read before the New York Academy of Medicine on Wednesday, October 6th, 1859, 
and Published under its Authority. 



NEW YORK: 
Cr. A. C. VAN BEUREN, TRINTER, 223 BLEECKER STREET. 



1852. 






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